Harding has Swans primed and ready for unbeaten BulldogsSaturday, April 11, 2015 - 10:07 AM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts coach Greg Harding has had two weeks to let his team know about his disappointment about their loss to East Perth and expects their best this Saturday against a South Fremantle team he rates as a real contender in 2015.

Swans started the season in emphatic fashion beating Perth by 96 points at Steel Blue Oval before then putting in a disappointing first two and-a-half quarters against East Perth at Medibank Stadium.

The black-and-whites did fly home and only lost by 13 points but for Harding it didn’t make up for the poor way his team started the game.

They then had the bye last weekend over Easter and now Harding has some selection headaches coming into Saturday's clash with the unbeaten South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval.

Attacking small defender Kirk Ugle will return to take the Bulldogs and then Harding is weighing up whether or not to give the opportunity to colts premiership players Levi Ridley, Warrick Wilson, Nelson Ansey and Sean Fletcher.

"Kirk Ugle will definitely come in this week. He unfortunately had to miss with a family commitment against East Perth and then we have some real headaches because we have a number of outstanding young colts boys who played in that grand final last year who are in great form," Harding said.

"With Kirk Ugle coming in and some of these young boys in the reserves playing good footy, we have some headaches in terms of coming up with the best possible 22 to trouble South Fremantle on Saturday."

Harding does know that his team will need to be at their best to beat South Fremantle, though, and he has seen a vast improvement in the Bulldogs' defensive capabilities so far in 2015.

"They were touted before the start of the season as one of the teams who would step up and improve, and in their first three games they have certainly improved. If you put Dell'Olio, Kyle Hams and Blayne Wilson into that team, and it makes a huge difference," he said.

"In previous years with Cook, Ashton, Schloithe, Higgins and those sorts of boys and wingmen like Parry and Bewick, they've always been strong there but their back six has been an area where you've been able to kick enough goals to win against them.

"With Blayne Wilson going there and the improvement of Ross, Strom and now Marlon Pickett there, I reckon that back six has really been strengthened and a lot of that is because of Blayne Wilson. You look down their list and they are a seasoned outfit and that's what I saw from them last Friday.

"They're a side that when their seasoned players link up like Cook, Kyle, Ashton and those guys, they are a seasoned, mature footy side who can control the footy. I've got no doubt they are going to finish in the top third of the ladder and they provide us with a really big challenge this week."

Looking back on the loss to East Perth a fortnight ago, Harding was disappointed with the way Swans weren’t able to take advantage of a Royals line-up that would have been down on confidence following their Round 1 loss to East Fremantle.

"I was really disappointed with the East Perth game. Off their East Fremantle performance, I thought it was a really good opportunity to get hold of that side. I thought the first 15 minutes of the game was strong and we didn’t take our chances, and then we played 40 minutes of really low intensity football on the defensive side of the ball," he said.

"They really did get going and we handed them momentum and once they got going they were so hard to stop.

"They then had injuries to Johnson and Newman, and we stormed back into it and had a chance to win late in the game, but our lack of effort and ability to get through 120 minutes of really strong, contested footy really cost us. I was really disappointed with that game and we have to bounce back against South Fremantle this week."

Harding's biggest area of concern coming into the 2015 was understandably over his ruck brigade with Connor Blakely expected to miss up to two months with a finger injury and with no recognised back up.

After weighing up using Tallan Ames, Tony Notte or Joel Houghton, Harding decided to give the chance to Jake Nuich and he couldn’t be happier with what the 19-year-old has delivered in his first two league appearances.

"We have been stoked with Jake Nuich, we really have. For us last year was a season we were concerned with our ruck stocks when we had severe injuries to certain personnel and obviously Wes Lammie moved on, but Nathan Blakely proved to us that an undersized ruckman who gives second, third and fourth efforts and can extract the ball out of clearances can be more than competitive," Harding said.

"When Nathan went down with the finger, we spoke about so many different options and even mentioned putting the old boy Tallan Ames back in the ruck where we started, and we have Tony Notte as an option and so is Joel Houghton coming out of Perth and he's pinch-hitting for us, but we looked at Jakey Nuich and how competitive he is.

"He has improved so much with his running capacity and we were really confident that he could take over the reins from Nathan and do a good job. He's done more than that. His first game was superb against Eyres and Power, and he battled and battled against Johnson who is a great player. I couldn’t be happier with what Jake is providing for us."